in his autobiography Seventy Years Amongst Savages (an
accountofhislifeinEngland)recordsaconversationhehad
when he was a master at Eton College. He had recently
becomeavegetarian;nowforthefirsttimehewastodiscuss
hispracticewithacolleague,adistinguishedscienceteacher.
Withsometrepidationheawaitedtheverdictofthescientific
mindonhisnewbeliefs;whenitcame,itwas:“Butdon’tyou
think that animals weresentto us for food?”^42
Anotherwriter,LordChesterfield,appealedtonature,instead
of God:
Myscruplesremainedunreconciledtothecommittingofso
horridameal,tilluponseriousreflectionIbecameconvinced
of itslegality from thegeneral order ofnature, which has
institutedtheuniversalpreyingupontheweakerasoneofher
first principles.^43
WhetherLordChesterfieldthoughtthisjustifiedcannibalism
is not recorded.
BenjaminFranklinusedthesameargument—theweaknessof
which Paley exposed—as a justification for returning to a
flesh diet after some years as a vegetarian. In his
Autobiography he recounts how he was watching some
friendsfishing,andnoticedthatsomeofthefishtheycaught
hadeatenotherfish.Hethereforeconcluded,“Ifyoueatone
another, I don’t see why we may not eat you.” Franklin,
however,wasatleastmorehonest thansome whousethis
argument,forheadmitsthathereachedthisconclusiononly
afterthefishwasinthefrying-panandhadbegunto smell
“admirablywell”;andheaddsthatoneoftheadvantagesof